NEW ORLEANS — With some people, the less they offer, the more captivating they become.

There are mesmerizing qualities about San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and not just because he has the running gait of a tall thoroughbred and the arm strength of a pitching machine.

Although the fascination starts there.

"I don't mess with the Jugs because you can't put the Jugs machine up to how he throws the ball," said 49ers wide receiver Randy Moss. "I remember Brett Favre early in his career, he broke a couple fingers but he broke them out in the tundra. Kaep is breaking fingers in 60-, 70-degree weather."

Said Baltimore Ravens cornerback Corey Graham, who picked off Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning twice in a Jan. 12 playoff game and is preparing to meet Kaepernick in Super Bowl XLVII at the Superdome on Sunday: "It's rare that you can find a quarterback who can run that well and also throw that well. I put him in that category with RGIII."

Robert Griffin III is similar to Kaepernick in quarterback style, but not in personality. Griffin is personable, expansive in his responses, wide with his smile. He exudes confidence and conviction.

The Super Bowl media podiums have never hosted another quarterback quite like Kaepernick. He is not shy or agitated, but his answers are brief. No sense talking in paragraphs when a word or two will do.

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Did he consider signing with the Chicago Cubs when they made him a 43rd-round pick in Major League Baseball's 2009 draft?

"No," Kaepernick said.

But for most of your life, you were a better baseball player than football player, right?

"I was, but I liked football better," he said. Nothing more.

Just the Cubs' luck. Kaepernick's story is inspiring, so much so that the media have prodded into it.

"That's not something I can control," he said. "That's not something I think about. I'm worried about my family."

Wonderlic test? No problem

Part of his mystery is the newness of his work. After barely playing as a rookie last season, the Super Bowl will be only his 10th NFL start. Had Alex Smith not suffered a concussion in an overtime game against the St. Louis Rams, Kaepernick may never have been given an opportunity to play this season.

San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh even had a clandestine offseason workout with Manning at Duke University. Remember? Manning later had to call the 49ers and say, sorry, he was going to sign with the Broncos.

Yet, despite his unorthodox playing style and limited experience, Kaepernick helped put up 41 points against the hot New England Patriots in Foxborough, Mass. He later overcame a 17-0 deficit in the NFC championship game in the hostile environment of the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. He rallied the 49ers past the Falcons, 28-24, to earn his chance to say very little about himself during Super Bowl week.

Who is this guy with the soul patch on his chin, iPod connected to his ears and straight-billed baseball cap on his head?

"Teams now are all given this psychological test," said Gil Brandt, an NFL analyst and longtime former head of the Dallas Cowboys' scouting department. "And he knocked the test dead. He's very smart. He scored really, really high on the Wonderlic test. And it was given before he was tutored."

It's been reported in recent weeks that Kaepernick, 25, was born out of wedlock. His birth mother now is a registered nurse living in Thornton. She gave him up for adoption and he has been raised first in Wisconsin then in California by loving parents.

Does he know about his birth parents?

"Not too much," Kaepernick said.

Isn't he curious?

"Not in years," he said, and nothing more.

His tone is disinterest, not malice or irritation. Do we have to know his business, just because he's famous?

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick smiles as the team sets up for a photo during media day Tuesday in New Orleans. (Mark Humphrey, The Associated Press)

"I think he's pretty guarded," said former NFL quarterback Jim Miller, an NFL analyst for Sirius radio. "You can tell he has his coach's back, his teammates' back. He doesn't want to let too much out. But you can hear some of the naiveté in him."

Derrick Brooks, a former star linebacker with the Tampa Bay Bucs, sees something else in Kaepernick.

"He's got a quiet arrogance," Brooks said. "He's arrogant. Which you have to be as a quarterback. You've got to have a little bit of that. Jeff Garcia, as small as he was, had a certain cockiness. I don't think any of that is out of bounds."

Routing the CSU Rams

Kaepernick also has tattoos. Johnny Unitas wore hightops. Kaepernick has body paint. His father wouldn't let him get tattoos as a kid. So, when Kaepernick turned 19, he went crazy with the art.

Some fans may not like tattoos with their football stars. For some, it's a biblical thing. There are quotations in the Bible about how the body is the Lord's temple and man shall not make cuttings or marks on one's flesh.

Kaepernick is a Christian who has two psalms etched on him. His favorite is Psalm 18:39 — "You arm me with strength for battle. You make my adversaries bow at my feet."

"Basically it's saying that the Lord has given me all the tools to be successful," Kaepernick said. "I just have to go out there and do my part to uphold that."

A little more than three years ago, he was outplayed by Grant Stucker in Fort Collins. Kaepernick's Nevada Wolf Pack team was getting drummed 35-6 late in the fourth quarter in a September 2009 game at Colorado State before he added some garbage points.

A year later, in a rematch against the Rams in Reno, Nev., Kaepernick was unstoppable, passing for 241 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for 161 yards and two TDs in a 51-6 rout.

After Kaepernick's senior season at Nevada, Harbaugh, the newly hired 49ers coach, made a trade with the Broncos so he could move up in the second round and draft Kaepernick. The Broncos wound up with draft picks that brought them safeties Rahim Moore and Quinton Carter.

Harbaugh had come from Stanford, where he and offensive coordinator Greg Roman had enormous success with quarterback Andrew Luck, a prototype passer with underrated athleticism.

"(It's) mainly something that our staff believes in, quarterback-driven runs," Harbaugh said. "It's something that we had done at Stanford and something that we did with Alex Smith and Colin, and definitely it's been more with Colin."

It's mind numbing to think about. A little more than three years after he endured a tough day against the CSU Rams in Fort Collins, Kaepernick is ready to take on Ray Lewis and the Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII.

Pass this around

• Born Nov. 3, 1987, in Milwaukee. The No. 1 song that day was "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tiffany.

• Given up for adoption when he was about 1 month old to Rick and Teresa Kaepernick of Fond du Lac, Wis.

• Moved when he was 4 years old to Turlock, Calif. Still, he grew up a Green Bay Packers fan.

• A 4.0 GPA student at John H. Pitman High School, he was considered a better baseball pitching prospect than a football player.

• Was 6-foot-5 and 170 pounds as a high school senior. He had several baseball scholarship offers, but accepted his only football scholarship offer to play quarterback, for the Nevada Wolf Pack in Reno, Nev.

• Redshirted his first year at Nevada and didn't get significant playing time until the fifth game of his redshirt freshman season when the starting quarterback suffered a season-ending injury.

• Averaged 20.5 touchdown passes and only six interceptions in his four seasons at Nevada.

• The only player in college history to pass for at least 2,000 yards and rush for at least 1,000 in three consecutive seasons.

• The San Francisco 49ers acquired the 36th pick, No. 4 in the second round of the 2011 NFL draft, from the Broncos in exchange for No. 45 (Rahim Moore), No. 108 (Quinton Carter) and No. 152 (packaged with another pick to take the No. 129 overall pick in the fourth round for Julius Thomas).

• Completed only 3-of-5 passes for 35 yards and had only two rushing attempts for minus-2 yards as a rookie.

• Started nine games, including the playoffs, in relief of injured Alex Smith this season and has a 7-2 record. He has passed for 2,310 yards, 13 touchdowns and four interceptions and rushed for 617 yards and seven touchdowns.

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